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For Immediate Release - July 13, 2015

Statement from AG Healey in Response to Court Decision Rejecting Challenge to Earned Sick Time Law

BOSTON – Attorney General Maura Healey today issued a statement in response to U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel’s decision to uphold Massachusetts’s Earned Sick Time Law, rejecting a challenge that the law was preempted by federal labor law.

“We are very pleased by the Court’s ruling and will continue to defend this important law to ensure that the will of the voters is carried out. This ruling makes clear that thousands of workers in Massachusetts who help to build our roads, bridges, and schools are among those who can now earn and use sick time to care for themselves and their families. This is a great victory for those workers, other unionized employees across the state, and everyone who has sought to make this a right for Massachusetts’s working families.”

The lawsuit was filed by a group of contractor associations in the building industry who argued that Section 301 of the Federal Labor Management Relations Act preempts the Earned Sick Time Law and that the Law therefore does not apply to workers in unions across the Commonwealth who are covered by collective bargaining agreements.

The AG’s Office received support for its defense of the Earned Sick Time Law in the form of a Statement of Interest from the United States Department of Labor/U.S. Department of Justice, and amicus briefs from Communities for Social Justice aka Raise Up Massachusetts, Massachusetts AFL-CIO, SEIU State Council, and SEIU 32BJ.